Life often happens without giving us a warning, but even if it did, sometimes we simply lack the eyes to see it. If we weren't so oblivious to the signs the universe presents to us, would we change ourselves to prevent the harm? Or would we try to change everything else?

The citizens of the golden city of Norath abandoned their gods long ago to create the perfect place for them to live. Their obsession led them to the destruction of their natural environment. As smart as they were, they created a construction that allowed them to suspend their city in the sky above the wasteland. The city created many opportunities for its people; one just had to grab them.

The unmatched beauty of the gardens of Norath combined with the soft light of the setting sun made it the perfect day for a proposal. Swans danced happily on the surface of the lake. Lush flowers bloomed as far as the eye could see, touched gently by the wings of beautiful blue butterflies. With the spring slowly turning into summer, the world was ready for changes.

A young woman named Caermirella was no different. She strolled along the lake arm in arm with her partner, Lusstoni. She was ready to answer the question he had asked. However, he didn't seem to. The man kept silently walking, clearly oblivious to the beauty of the place, yet when she looked at him, even his face bathed in the warm sunlight looked just right. She wanted to believe.

"Lusstoni, I got a question," she finally said.

He looked at her with a blank expression. His eyes were a cold shade of green, yet she always saw them as warmer.

"What is it?"

Caermirella seemed slightly embarrassed to be the one to start this conversation. She nervously pulled aside a lock of her curly brown hair away from her pale face.

"When do you think we could get married?" she asked timidly, biting her rosy lower lip.

Lusstoni stopped abruptly and stared right into her soul, sending shivers down her spine.

"Where does this come from?" he answered with a question.

The woman was a little uneasy.

"We've been together for years now," she said. "I thought that the sooner we got married, the sooner we could plan our future family. You know I've always dreamed of becoming a mother."

Lusstoni laughed in her face in a tawdry way.

"Oh darling, are you serious? Did you really believe we would do that?" he asked. "You should have realized that I hate children. How many times did I tell you I wanted them?"

Caermirella kept staring at him in disbelief. This was, in fact, the first time he said it out loud. Deep inside she felt he would be like this, but she still had hope things would change. Until now.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" he continued. "I am not and will never be ready for commitment. That's on you if you believed it would go any other way."

Caermirella pulled herself away from his grasp.

"Then I will find someone who is," she responded and ran off in tears, holding her pink dress to avoid falling.

"Caermirella, wait!" he shouted, suddenly realizing what it meant. "Let me explain!"

She ran too fast for him to catch up. He was suddenly left all alone and out of breath; for a moment even birds stopped singing.

It's okay; she will come back to me, he thought to himself. She couldn't just leave me, right?

Lusstoni nervously started smoking a cigarette, but his hands started to shake, making him drop it to the ground.

"Damn it," he exclaimed loudly and stormed out of the garden. The man felt like the entire world was spinning around him. He quickly ran to his house up the hill and rolled into his living room, closing the door loudly behind him. He wanted to scream.

Lusstoni went into his bathroom to wash his face. He looked at his reflection, and a sudden wave of anger took over him. He started pulling his short brown hair in frustration.

"You idiot, how could you say that?" he shouted at himself. "What am I going to do now? I think I need a drink to ease my nerves."

The man went back into his living room and began rummaging through his cabinets. He found a bottle of gin, and he started drinking it directly out of the container. The liquid was stringent and bitter, but he didn't feel like he deserved anything better at this point.

His despair could be measured by the empty bottles left on his floor, but he felt like each gulp gave him peace as much as it robbed him of his mind. He didn't remember how much he drank. The memories of the night were glued together and stirred.

Early morning when the alcohol started losing its grip on his senses, he realized that he was supposed to be somewhere.

Lusstoni's family was never pleased with his job, but he loved it. He was a mechanic in a factory and a respected one. Ever since he was a child, he loved tinkering, and this job brought him great joy.

Not wanting to leave his colleagues wondering what happened to him, he got dressed and went to his workplace.

He thought he was hiding his current state quite well. Nobody seemed to notice anything strange about him.

Things were going fine until one of his coworkers asked for him to fix one of the big machines. He took his tools and followed along to see what was going on. Supposedly it was stuck.

He tried to unlock the machine, but it was difficult for him to see all the little elements after everything he drank last night. He accidentally pressed a button he had not noticed before.

Suddenly the machine let out a sound so loud that he fainted. Or at least he thought that's why it happened.

Lusstoni woke up much later in the hospital bed. His entire body was in pain. The man tried to move around when he noticed he was missing his left arm.

"Wha... what happened?" he asked, still dizzy.

"You are stupid; that's what happened," his father responded. He was a tall and intimidating man with a mustache. He wasn't exactly the kindest person to wake up next to, certainly not the prettiest one to look at.

Lusstoni glanced around. It seemed like there was nobody else in the room apart from his parents and himself.

"We just came here to tell you that we know what happened between you and Caermirella," his mother said. She was a cold middle-aged woman with short hair the color of ripe dust. Any other mother would be more preoccupied with her child's condition, not her, however.

"I don't understand," Lusstoni mumbled.

"We have enough of your antics," his father said. "From now on, we will no longer welcome you in our family. We gave Caermirella our blessing to marry your brother, Hagellish."

"Why would you do it?" Lusstoni asked in disbelief.

His mother looked at him with a cold stare. "You are a lazy underachiever who did nothing but bring us shame. Caermirella is such a wonderful asset to our family, and you just let her go like this. She's young, beautiful, and from a wealthy and influential family."

Parents of Lusstoni cared a lot about the way others perceived them. They always wanted more than they needed, and they weren't too preoccupied with anything aside from that.

"Since you never do anything right, you will now be on your own. Your mother and I have enough of being ashamed because of you," his father said.

Both of his parents got up from their chairs and left him alone in the room.

It had been eight years ever since these events happened, but Lusstoni had been reliving them vividly in his head every single day. He never got over Caermirella and still hoped she would return to him, even after all this time, after all he had done.

That morning he got up full of yearning for the unknown. He wanted to leave it all behind and start a journey to run away from the pain. Leaving Norath never crossed his mind before, but after all, what did he have to lose?

Lusstoni packed necessities and his last picture of Caermirella in case he felt like he needed to look at her again during his journey. He knew it was wrong, but he just couldn't part with it.

The man hauled his suitcases onto his round balcony, in front of which his personal airship was parked. He modified it to be able to pilot it on his own. It wasn't the most technologically advanced or the biggest vehicle he could get, but it was all his, and he loved it more than he loved his family. While it may not be the greatest measure, at least the airship never abandoned him.

The vehicle was like a miniature house; it had everything Lusstoni could need. It was perfect for his little adventure around the world.

He put his suitcases away and took a seat in the cockpit. He lowered his goggles, which until now were resting on top of his purple top hat, and began setting up the machine.

Lucky him, the doctors helped him get a mechanical replacement arm, so steering the airship on his own was not too difficult.

The man turned on the radio and focused on the horizon. His airship slowly lifted off and began flying towards the main gate of Norath.

Lusstoni felt both relieved and sad that he was leaving his city behind, but deep down he knew he needed it.

The sun shone through the window and reflected in his golden prosthetic arm. The blue sky and the fluffy clouds filled him with sudden joy he had not experienced in years.

He turned the volume of the radio up. His favorite song was playing, and he began singing. Normally he wouldn't do that, but he was alone and on the run from his problems.

Lusstoni wondered what could make this trip even better. He looked behind him at the map hanging on the wall of the cockpit. The yellowed scroll reminded him that there was a small apple orchard nearby.

He nodded to himself and quickly glanced back at Norath and said, "I will not be missing either you or that wasteland underneath."

Lusstoni lowered the anchor, and his airship slowly but steadily landed on the ground. He went out of the vehicle and touched the grass with his shoes. He leaned against the walking cane he brought with him from his deck. The man didn't need it at the moment, but ever since he had the accident, one of his legs sometimes hurts him so much that he can't walk without it. Despite the great morning he had, he didn't believe his body wouldn't betray him.